


an eye for an eye

by ymirjotunn



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Manipulation, Pre-Team Charge Debacle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 08:06:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3167621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ymirjotunn/pseuds/ymirjotunn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Team Charge Debacle, Terezi spends weeks alone in her room, trying to justify the things she did and the things she saw to a roomful of Pyralspites who - infuriatingly - offer no judgment but their silent stares.</p>
            </blockquote>





	an eye for an eye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Emeridan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emeridan/gifts).



> Warnings for emotional manipulation and some occasional ableist language.

Today I stand before the court, charged with lack of foresight.

Which! Is pretty ironic, considering the state of things now. Foresight, hindsight, midsight, you name it: I check none of the above. 

(Yes, that was a joke, and yes, you’re allowed to laugh at the blind girl.)

You accuse me of harboring a terrible person, of forgiving her of unforgivable crimes. And I will not deny you are correct! But, as the court is well aware, I am not the kind of desperate fool who would plead guilty. I’m not looking to escape a sentence. I’m looking to finish one.

Your first error, your first fatal flaw, lies in assuming that you know what she was.

Let me explain myself.

* * *

Good to see you again, Pyrope!!!!!!!!

She throws her arms around you, gives you the tightest hug you’ve ever gotten. Sometimes you think she’s trying to strangle you, but when she steps away her smile is a shark’s but her eyes are fire-warm. The combination is peak friendliness with Vriska, and it makes your insides do illegal things. You make a note to later prosecute the unlawful behavior.

1 M4D3 D1NN3R, you say, strongly and successfully sounding casual. 

8a8e! You didn’t have to, Vriska croons, running her hand through your hair. You make a note that your insides are not only committing crimes but also resisting arrest, making them doubly illegal. What are we cele8rating?

You coming over, you do not say. The fact that your hand is delicately touching the shell of my ear, or that your eyes are gazing into my own, or that I can feel the presence of your body and I think I would do anything to see you smile at me again.

Instead you say, OUR R3C3NT V1CTORY, OF COURS3. WH4T K1ND OF 4 V1CTORY WOULD 1T B3, 1F W3 D1D NOT 3XULT 1N 1T?

She smiles again - she smiles! at you! again! - and you start to believe your insides will not be able to stand trial, as they have presently melted into goo.

Later she tells you that your grubsteak is phenomenal, bloody just how she likes it. (Of course you know how she likes it.)

For many minutes you attempt to convince yourself that she is doing this on purpose, that she simply loves to see you flounder, but she doesn’t even seem to notice. She does not seem on top of her manipulating game right now, and you have seen her there so many times before; she just seems content to fling her arm around the back of the couch, barely tickling the back of your neck with her sleeve, as you watch Troll Jeopardy and she delightedly shouts every answer she knows at the audiovisual transmission cube.

She is too charming for her own good. Or perhaps she is simply too charming for your own good, which is embarrassing, but also probably true.

* * *

Your second error lies in assuming that I did not know _exactly_ what she was.

* * *

1 H4T3 TH3 W1LD3RN3SS, you announce, pushing aside a branch just to have it smack you right back in the face. Fucking branches.

You are tripping through a forest in full Redglare garb; the various branches and thorns and crawling spiny things have already muddied your shoes and torn your tunic and you wish - not for the first time, but also not for the last time - that for once Vriska would get her pert little rear out into the field and do something. Physically. With her hands and feet.

T3LL M3 W3 4R3 4LMOST DON3 H3R3 OR 1 W1LL 1N3V1T4BLY R3VOLT

Calm your 8a8y titties!!!!!!!! I’m doing my 8est to find the perpetr8ors and then we’ll 8e out of here in no time.

NO T1M3 1S NOWH3R3 N34R SOON 3NOUGH  
T3LL M3 4G41N WHY YOU 4R3 SP3CT4CUL4RLY 1NC4P4BL3 OF 4CCOMP4NY1NG M3 ON S3SS1ONS LOC4T3D 1N TH3 W1LD3RN3SS, WH3N YOU S33M TO H4V3 NO 1SSU3 1N MOR3 STRUCTUR3D 4R3N4S >:?

8ecause.

TH4T 1S 4N 4NSW3R TH4T 4 B4BY WOULD 4NSW3R W1TH 4ND YOU KNOW 1T

8ecause you look 8etter dirty than I do.

BULLSH1T!!!

Shut up! T8ke a left.

You take a left. You are scowling, clenching both fists. This session has been an exceptional disappointment. You’ve seen neither hide nor horn of Team Charge, even though you bet Aradia is accompanying _her_ player. There’s been nothing to fight. Nothing to do but walk. Your feet are aching and Vriska’s going to pay for picking this as soon as you see her.

Stop!!!!!!!!

You stop abruptly, nearly smacking into another branch. WH4T?

Right there. A little to your left. It’s 8rown. Squirming. You can’t miss it.

You look, a little to your left. There’s a wriggler, freshly squirming and still blind. How it got out here, you have no idea. It shouldn’t be outside the caves yet; it’s going to get eaten by some bird of prey, or run over by some hapless FLARPer.

WH4T 4BOUT 1T? 1S TH1S R3L3V4NT?

Kill it.

You wait, to make sure she’s finished with her sentence.

Well????????

WHY WOULD 1 K1LL 1T?

You need warpaint.

1 UND3RST4ND YOU TH1NK 1T WOULD B3 COOL 1F 1 W3R3 TO W34R W4RP41NT  
BUT NO

Okay. Fine. You wanna know why I want it dead?

B3C4US3 YOU 4R3 4 R4G1NG LUN4T1C  
1S MY 1MM3D14T3 4SSUMPT1ON

8ecause we are gonna fuck with Tavros. >::::)

1 4M NOT SUR3 1 4M 1NT3R3ST3D 1N FUCK1NG W1TH 4NYBODY

Don’t deny that m8king Nitram squirm is 8y far the 8est of pastimes!

NOT TH4T 1 4M S4Y1NG YOU 4R3 B14S3D  
BUT 1 TH1NK YOU M4Y B3 SOM3WH4T B14S3D

You won’t even humor me????????

WH4T WOULD 1 G3T 1N R3TURN?

Um. My undying gr8titude?

GR4T1TUD3 R4R3LY S3LLS FOR MUCH  
UNDY1NG OR OTH3RW1S3

Since when were you the 8conomics expert!!!!!!!!

JUST T3LL M3 WH4T YOU 4R3 GO1NG TO DO W1TH 4 D34D GRUB

I just want to fr8k him out!

1 N33D 4 D3T41L3D PL4N  
“FR34K H1M OUT” IS NOT D3T41L

It looks like it’s injured already. Maybe you’d just be putting it out of its misery. How else would it be aboveground, if it wasn’t headed for slow, painful death and decay? You crouch, prodding it with a twig. It squirms, squalls annoyingly. You kinda want to kill it, Vriska or no Vriska.

I’m going to leave it at his hivestep and write in its 8lood *you’re next*.  
You know. Just a harmless pr8nk!  
For fun! 

TH4T DO3S NOT SOUND H4RML3SS  
TH4T 4CTU4LLY SOUNDS MENT4LLY SC4RR1NG?

Are you going to help me or not?

You consider it. The stick is already poised at one of the wriggler’s vitals. Not on purpose, but it is. ST1LL NOT SUR3 WH4T 1 G3T OUT OF TH1S

I told you already. My 8t8rnal loooooooove.

GROSS! >:[

You stab the grub. It wriggles, and stills, and its brown blood stains your hands without you even having touched it. It’s just there. You feel like Troll Macbeth, or something equally as--as _frantic_ , but then her voice comes through the speakers, manic and electrifying:

Aww! Pyrope, I knew you cared! ::::)

You know, you _know_ , when your knees wobble as you stand, the dead thing cupped in your arms like a, like a dead baby, you know when you hear her voice and you smile just a little bit, you _know_ you are weak and it sickens and delights you all at once.

* * *

It is with this that I deliver to you my closing statement.

You have accused me of the wrong crime. You accuse me of lacking foresight, but I had all the sight in the world back then. I saw.

Oh, I _saw_.

When I ask you to let me finish my sentence, it’s because I’ve already begun to serve it. I’ve already paid, an eye for an eye.

All I’m asking, all I’m asking is that you not let me see any more.


End file.
